Listen to a 1930s jazz kissa's record collection in the room that inherited it
The jazz kissa's records, still playing
A small listening room in Kannai holding the collection of Chigusa, the jazz kissa Mamoru Yoshida opened in Noge in 1933. Over 3,500 original records, the original audio gear, photographs and handwritten menu boards, and a working wooden phonograph about a hundred years old.
Why it's unique
Chigusa is described by its own foundation and by national press as the oldest surviving jazz kissa in Japan. The 1945 air raid destroyed the shop and all 6,000 of its records; Yoshida came back from military service and reopened in 1947 with a thousand-odd records begged from regulars and musicians.
In the 1950s an LP cost 30 to 40 percent of a month's salary, so the young Toshiko Akiyoshi, Sadao Watanabe and Terumasa Hino, then playing US military clubs in Yokohama, came here to study imported records rather than buy them. The café building is gone, but since April 2025 the collection itself has been played in this room, and you can hear it.
Before you go
Be clear about what you are visiting. The original Noge café is not trading: its building came down for a rebuild as a jazz museum that stalled after phase one in 2023. Music Chronicle Yokohama, run by the Preservation Society, is the thing that works today.
You pick from a period record list and they play it. Opening is roughly 13:00 to 18:00 on calendar days only, so check before you go. The music charge is ¥500 plus a drink from ¥300, paid in cash up front, and it is self-service.